alt-J with Bishop Briggs at Massey Hall

Photos by Neil Van

British indie heroes alt-J brought an atmospheric and effortlessly cool set to Massey Hall. Kicking off the tone for the night was the mesmerizing Bishop Briggs.

If you listen to BBC 6Music at all, you probably know who alt-j are – four indie nerds who met at Leeds University, went on to win the Mercury Music Prize with their debut album An Awesome Wave – and become the current torch bearers of indie and darlings of 6Music.

The venue was filled to capacity with trendy musos for the first of two nights at Massey Hall. Bars of vertical LEDs – separating the three band members like the bars of a cage – adorned the stage. Used to stunning atmospheric effect, alternately acting as music level indicators, stars and raindrops.

Opener 3WW is reminiscent of Massive Attack’s Teardrop as it begins, but morphs into several music styles and demonstrates the departure of new album Relaxer from earlier hits. Although In Cold Blood still has the early alt-J magic. Gus Unger-Hamilton’s vocals feel lacking on their own, especially when compared to the rich tones of Joe Newman, but their church-like shared vocals on Fitzpleasure are magic.

The tunes more than make up for the scant conversation with the crowd and the fact that they’re not a terribly interesting band to watch. There’s polite applause for gig closer Pleader but it’s too much of a departure from the sparse cool that makes alt-j great – it’s a damp squib of a closer. The encore rolls out the big guns and has the crowd on their feet for Fitzpleasure, Left Hand Free and Breezeblocks to finish – a nice flourish changing the words to “I love you so…Toronto.”